Six Types of B2B Website Visitors and How to Greet them with Chat(bots)

In the world of B2B buying, delivering personalized, relevant, and timely conversations can impact how well and quickly visitors convert.

You understand the value of real-time interaction and its influence on your buyer’s journey. An integrated chat platform onto your website can kickstart this interaction and continue to be a touchpoint as your buyers move from leads to customers.

But how do you effectively leverage chat on your website that isn’t just another pop-up?

The answer is to carefully segment your website visitors into different types.  Then you can craft your chatbot greeting messages to target each type and their stage in the buying process. 

Greeting Messages

Greeting messages in chatbots are like subject lines in emails. They play a critical role in quickly capturing your visitor’s attention.

Here are some fundamental guidelines for your greeting messages. 

• Treat them like subject lines.  Many of the subject line best practices apply to greeting messages.
• Don’t use the generic “How can I help you?”. Personalize your message to the visitor’s  web behavior, company, industry, or persona. 
• Use different chatbot messages for different visitors and even website pages. This also helps avoid repetitive messages.
• Keep messages short and simple. You don’t want a long-scroll experience within a small message window. Messages that are quick to read keep your prospect’s attention and encourage them to chat. 
• Determine the tone of your message and make sure that  it is consistent with your brand. Give it a  human touch. Avoid sounding robotic. 
• Prospects typically prefer a casual tone in online interactions because it feels like speaking to a person, rather than a bot.
• Be relatable. If possible, use emojis and talk about current circumstances. This allows you to connect with your prospects and build trust.
• And lastly, A/B test! What works for one visitor may not work for others . Test and see what works best. A change in message, typography, or color can make all the difference.

Your Six Most Important Types of Visitors

Here is a breakdown of the six types of visitors you will see on your website, followed by steps for greeting each one via your chatbot or a team member. 

1. The New Guest

New guests are visitors at the top of the sales funnel. It’s their first time on your site and your chatbot welcome message will be their first interaction with your brand. First impressions matter.

According to data by Tony Haile of Chartbeat, you have less than 15 seconds to capture a visitor’s attention before they leave your site. So this message is pretty important.

Keep it friendly but also add value. This is your chance to give your brand a personality that prospects can remember. A simple question, maybe even a friendly joke, is a great start. 

Importantly, this greeting message should be placed on your homepage so you can connect with prospects immediately.

2. The Returning Visitor

These are the visitors that have been on your site before, and they keep coming back without converting. 

Your first step to capture their attention should be a message that recognizes their return. Make them feel seen and valued, and offer them something that compels them to share more information about themselves. This can be a piece of content that your ideal prospects would love:

Or you can recognize the visitor and give a gentle nudge so they can take the next steps.

Or, you can offer an incentive in exchange for more information:

3. The Content Binger

The content binger requires a special sort of attention. They are on your website for one thing only: your content. They want to read your blog posts, watch your videos, and engage with your webinars before they take any further steps.

Elle Woulfe, PathFactory’s VP of marketing, calls this the Intelligent Content Delivery.

First, you should spot buyers who actually consume the content. Studies show that some prospects will consume at least seven pieces of content before they make a decision or ask any questions. 

So what do you do? Greet your content binger with your latest content piece.

Or, tell them there’s more from where that came from and sign them up for new content updates.

4. The Hot Prospect

The hot prospect is probably the most important visitor on your site. They are heavily evaluating you and most likely your competitor’s solution. But, they haven’t yet spoken to you or filled out a contact form.

This is an opportunity to be proactive and not wait for them. Set up a chatbot greeting message to help them on their path to purchase. If possible,  personalize your message to their stage of evaluation or the high-value page they’re on.

Or even better, try to connect them to the appropriate sales rep while they’re on your website. If they’ve been doing some research, they are more likely to speak to a person right away versus a bot.

5. The Buying Committee

This is once an account has been accepted as a potential opportunity with sales. It’s not enough to just engage one Once an account has been accepted as a potential opportunity, it’s not enough to just engage one lead with sales. There’s an entire buying committee that can influence a deal. An account visitor could be an executive sponsor, power user, champion, operations manager, and even a legal team. No matter who in the account visits your website, try and engage with them.

Regardless of who you chat with, you want more penetration within the account, especially as the sales conversations begin. Use this opportunity to offer up information that makes their evaluation easy.

6. The Target Account

The target accounts you worked so hard to attract have finally come onto your site. These deserve a bit more love than you usually do. It’s time to roll out the red carpet.

First, remove the bot and alert your sales rep that their account is browsing your website.

Second, have the rep personalize a conversation starter that can get the visitors talking. Engage, interact, and support them every step of the way, ensuring a seamless experience.

Maximize Opportunities With Chat

Chatbots have come a long way, and with a human-first approach, they can support your pipeline in more creative avenues. They are the key to maximizing unseen opportunities on your website. Qualified buyers are visiting your site — and you might be ignoring them if you’re not using chat.